Choose the Right Synonym for cunning

Adjective

clever, adroit, cunning, ingenious mean having or showing practical wit or skill in contriving. clever stresses physical or mental quickness, deftness, or great aptitude.
a person clever with horses adroit often implies a skillful use of expedients to achieve one's purpose in spite of difficulties.
an adroit negotiator cunning implies great skill in constructing or creating.
a filmmaker cunning in his use of special effects ingenious suggests the power of inventing or discovering a new way of accomplishing something.
an ingenious software engineer

sly, cunning, crafty, wily, tricky, foxy, artful, slick mean attaining or seeking to attain one's ends by guileful or devious means. sly implies furtiveness, lack of candor, and skill in concealing one's aims and methods.
a sly corporate raider cunning suggests the inventive use of sometimes limited intelligence in overreaching or circumventing.
the cunning fox avoided the trap crafty implies cleverness and subtlety of method.
a crafty lefthander wily implies skill and deception in maneuvering.
the wily fugitive escaped the posse tricky is more likely to suggest shiftiness and unreliability than skill in deception and maneuvering.
a tricky political operative foxy implies a shrewd and wary craftiness usually involving devious dealing.
a foxy publicity man planting stories artful implies indirectness in dealing and often connotes sophistication or cleverness.
elicited the information by artful questioning slick emphasizes smoothness and guile.
slick operators selling time-sharing

Noun

art, skill, cunning, artifice, craft mean the faculty of executing well what one has devised. art implies a personal, unanalyzable creative power.
the art of choosing the right word skill stresses technical knowledge and proficiency.
the skill of a glassblower cunning suggests ingenuity and subtlety in devising, inventing, or executing.
a mystery plotted with great cunningartifice suggests technical skill especially in imitating things in nature.
believed realism in film could be achieved only by artificecraft may imply expertness in workmanship.
the craft of a master goldsmith

Examples of cunning in a Sentence

Adjective

… this cat has made his way into the Fitness Center for cunning reasons of his own and reveals himself only to certain privileged individuals.— Joyce Carol Oates, Harper's, June 2008Throughout his time hunting the vampire, Manolito had been wounded and poisoned on many occasions, but still he'd survived because he'd always used his brain. He was cunning and shrewd and very intelligent.— Christine Feehan, Dark Possession, 2007I have recounted the advice I received from an old-timer about how to keep raccoons out of garbage cans—advice that eventually included the purchase of a combination lock. ("A raccoon's cunning, but he's got no head for figures.")— Calvin Trillin, New Yorker, 11 Oct. 1993A cunning politician is often found skulking under the clerical robe, with an outside all religion, and an inside all political rancour.— Washington Irving, A History of New York, 1809,
in History, Tales and Sketches, (1977) 1983So the Leader went into his den and looked at his children—two very cunning little cubs, lying on the floor.— Hugh Lofting, The Story of Doctor Dolittle, 1920
She was cunning enough to fool me.
a cunning, underhanded plan to win the election by preying on people's fears and prejudices

Noun

The writing is best in the play's later scenes, when More deploys his legal cunning to help him weasel out of a political trap set by the oleaginous Thomas Cromwell …— John Lahr, New Yorker, 20 Oct. 2008Tsvetaeva was lacking, moreover, in any instinct for cunning or self-preservation, or even for what might be called mere getting along …— Claudia Roth Pierpont, New Yorker, 7 Feb. 1994He could see no change, save that in the eyes there was a look of cunning and in the mouth the curved wrinkle of the hypocrite.— Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray, 1891
He may be a fraud, but you have to admire his cunning.
the cunning with which Tom Sawyer was able to get others to whitewash the fence for him

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'cunning.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.